could rivera be bringing stephen cooper with him?

[riddel]

First off, the panthers #1 priority will be to extend OUR guys long term.

Says who?

Rivera has no loyalty to any players in Carolina and it's not his #1 priority. That's a good thing. It's time to rebuild. I don't want any excuses down the road, so it's all or nothing as far as I'm concerned. Evaluate everyone and make sure they fit in Rivera's system.

[pantherfan49]

he tore his acl twice so that's mucho bad. But he also has been in rehab for a very long time and he never came out of rehab mode.

He came back too quickly. Even when it was first reported on how well he was doing many posters were voicing concerns it was too fast.

Ignoring the long-term impact of the injury to things such as his speed and agility, how good do you think he will be after being out of football for most of two seasons?

Guys, TD has to be considered done in the NFL. If he somehow makes it back, great, but don't count on him at all and certainly don't throw money at him.

[The Saltman]

ya I am not counting on TD coming back to carolina and quite frankly do not care.

[bleys]

First off, the panthers #1 priority will be to extend OUR guys long term. This applys to all of the Lets sign ____"" folks.

Second, no. (well he COULD, he could alot of things, no)

I definitely understand we'll sign our core.. but Fox's core may be different than Rivera's...

[rayzor]

Says who?

Rivera has no loyalty to any players in Carolina and it's not his #1 priority. That's a good thing. It's time to rebuild. I don't want any excuses down the road, so it's all or nothing as far as I'm concerned. Evaluate everyone and make sure they fit in Rivera's system.

i agree. rivera needs to build his team his way, regardless of loyalties that we may have to some players. we were pissed at fox for being overly loyal to many players and also criticized his trying to fit square pegs into round holes, but then we want rivera to show loyalty to some players we think are key to the team and expect him to fit existing players into a new system that may not be at all an ideal fit.

i'm sure he'll tailor some of the offense and defense to fit the players that are in house, but he shouldn't be confined to just those players.

one thing to point out, we would be having a whole lot more cuts this year if they hadn't been done prior to last year.

[Matthias]

Whatever Rivera does, he better not move Beason to OLB. Cooper is getting older, I don't care if he can't play OLB or not, if he can't play it then don't bring him here. Beason is our star player, and I want him at his best. I could care less what Cooper's best is, his best is not Beason best, not even close. If we did bring him in, unless he could beat out some of our other OLBs, I don't want to see him in the starting line-up. When we run the 3-4, fine.

[rayzor]

i don't know. cooper's pretty solid and a bigtime thumper and he's a really smart player as well. might make sense to have him at Mike over beason. whatever rivera wants there i'll be fine with.

got to get over loyalty issues.

[Mr. Scot]

Beason belongs at Mike, he's earned it and that's where he's best.

I don't think we need any LB's if we can keep who we have now.

In the previous defensive scheme, I'd have agreed wholeheartedly, though it has to be said that Connor / Beason / Anderson worked way better than I expected.

With the scheme switching, and the expectation being that it'll follow more of the Jim Johnson model, I'm not quite as certain.

[Toker Smurf]

so you were over under and under was over done?

Over...Roger...huh

Nice

[Urrymonster]

Whatever Rivera does, he better not move Beason to OLB. Cooper is getting older, I don't care if he can't play OLB or not, if he can't play it then don't bring him here. Beason is our star player, and I want him at his best. I could care less what Cooper's best is, his best is not Beason best, not even close. If we did bring him in, unless he could beat out some of our other OLBs, I don't want to see him in the starting line-up. When we run the 3-4, fine.

What if having Beason at WLB actually gives us three top tier LBs in each position? Just because he is 'our star player' doesn't mean we shouldn't do what is best for the team.

In my honest opinion, our LBs have never been more balanced with Beason, Connor & Anderson. We literally had the 'ideal' skill set in each position (Beason has the ideal skill set for multiple positions). I also think that his run play was exploited late last season, so even when he was in the middle, he wasn't playing as well as he has in the past. I really liked Connor's play, he is much more aggressive in hitting the gaps in the OLine and had a ridiculous number of defensive stops.

On topic, not sure where Cooper fits in. Beason and Connor beat him out the middle.

[KillerKat]

We need another OLB. Don't know if Davis will be healthy enough to start or how long he can stay healthy if he is.

[rayzor]

What if having Beason at WLB actually gives us three top tier LBs in each position? Just because he is 'our star player' doesn't mean we shouldn't do what is best for the team.

In my honest opinion, our LBs have never been more balanced with Beason, Connor & Anderson. We literally had the 'ideal' skill set in each position (Beason has the ideal skill set for multiple positions). I also think that his run play was exploited late last season, so even when he was in the middle, he wasn't playing as well as he has in the past. I really liked Connor's play, he is much more aggressive in hitting the gaps in the OLine and had a ridiculous number of defensive stops.

On topic, not sure where Cooper fits in. Beason and Connor beat him out the middle.

not in a 3-4

[Dpantherman]

Says who?

Rivera has no loyalty to any players in Carolina and it's not his #1 priority. That's a good thing. It's time to rebuild. I don't want any excuses down the road, so it's all or nothing as far as I'm concerned. Evaluate everyone and make sure they fit in Rivera's system.

I definitely understand we'll sign our core.. but Fox's core may be different than Rivera's...

Marty Hurney is re-signing players

[rayzor]

Marty Hurney is re-signing players

he will be re-signing a lot of them, but not all of them and there might be a couple surprising ones that slip through the cracks because they don't quite fit the scheme.